In a typical public communication network center, multiple authorized users (or clients) may have access to a communication network. One challenge for the centers is to protect the integrity of their printing equipment from unauthorized use. Public communication network centers run a security risk of tampering or unauthorized access to printers, if they are unable to authenticate print jobs submitted on their network. Additionally, a user may gain access to printing services that the user is not entitled, if printer authentication is insecure. Examples of printing services that a communication network center may desire to secure include: setting page limits for print jobs, permitting color printing, permitting photo quality printing, charging fees for printing quantities and/or qualities, providing particular access to a particular printer per user, and other related printing services.
Another challenge for public networked printing centers is the ability to authenticate print jobs when they are received via a virtual private network (VPN) or related Internet technique. Authorized users on a public intranet network may submit print jobs to printers located on the public network through their VPN. To the public intranet network, however, this print job may appear to have no relation to the authorized user, since it ultimately is received by the network through the Internet.
Some public networks attempt to use digital certificates as a means to authenticate a print job before permitting it to be printed, but digital certificates cannot readily restrict a user on a recurring basis without having them re-register or interact with the system manually; both of which are laborious processes.